Mostly about my backyard chickens. (Boring, I know), but there are a lot of us out here. Mine are only kept as pampered pets. I could eat a neighbor's chicken, but not MINE. There may be a comment on current events only if I get riled up enough. And there will always be a cartoon or a joke to cheer us. I promise to try my very best to respond to comments. Now I have to figure out how this blogger thingy works....

Friday, January 31, 2014

SS Great Britain

A
recent popular poll placed Isambard Kingdom Brunel as the second
Greatest Briton of all time, second after Sir Winston Churchill. He was
without doubt Britain’s greatest engineer, and of all the legacies he
left to the world, one of his greatest was the SS Great Britain.
The wrought iron steamship was built in 1843 in Bristol, under the
supervision of Brunel for the Great Western Steamship Company. The Great
Britain set the design standards for today’s modern shipping and
eminently demonstrated the industry and inventiveness of the Victorian
era. Almost single-handedly Brunel shaped the future of mass passenger
travel and international communications.

Originally conceived as a paddle steamer, her design was quickly
altered to take advantage of the new technology of screw propulsion, and
her engines were converted to power a massive sixteen foot iron
propeller. When launched in 1843 she was by far the largest ship in the
world, at almost 100 metres she was over 30 metres longer than her
nearest rival, and was the first screw propelled, ocean-going, wrought
iron ship. Weighing in at a massive 1930 tons, she was designed
initially for the Trans-Atlantic luxury passenger trade, and could carry
252 first and second class passengers and crew of 130.
Whilst her first few voyages demonstrated her technological ability,
they were not a great financial success, attracting far fewer passengers
than anticipated. Her career in this trade was thus short lived, and
after she ran aground on the sands of Dundrum Bay in Northern Ireland in
1846, her engines were so badly damaged that she was sold on.
Under Gibbs Bright and Co, the ship prospered. The new owners took
advantage of the increase in emigration caused by the Australian gold
rush, and re-built the ship as an emigrant carrier, taking people to
Australia. With a new upper deck added and a new engine fitted, she
could now transport 750 passengers in three classes.
Over the next 24 years and 32 voyages she carried over 16,000
emigrants to Australia, and was known in her time as one of the fastest,
most elegant and luxurious emigrant clipper ships – the ‘Greyhound of
the seas’.

The average time she took on the return journey to
Australia was 120 days - very competitive for the mid-19th century.
Passage on the ss Great Britain could virtually guarantee that a
passenger would arrive on time, well ahead of any sail powered rivals.
As meat went off easily on these long voyages, large numbers of live
animals were carried for food, giving the ship the appearance of Noah's
Ark rather than an emigrant ship. On one voyage in 1859, the ship
carried 133 live sheep, 38 pigs, 2 bullocks, 1 cow, 420 fowl, 300 ducks,
400 geese and 30 turkeys. Passenger diaries record the ship as smelling
and sounding like a barnyard!
Between 1854 and 1855 she was chartered by the Government to carry
troops to and from the Crimean War, and over the course of the conflict
transported over 44,000 troops.
Following the war she was rebuilt yet again before being chartered by
the Government for further troop transportation duties, carrying the
17th Lancers and 8th Hussars to the Indian Mutiny.
In 1861, for a marginally less serious conflict, the Great Britain also carried the first ever English cricket side
to tour Australia. The tour was immensely successful with a 15,000
crowd attending the opening match at Melbourne. The tourists played 12
games in all, winning 6, drawing 4 and losing 2.
And bad news could often follow glad news, such as when the onboard
newspaper the ‘Great Britain Times’ reported death of the pet koala bear
belonging to the ship’s carpenter. Apparently the marsupial died of
‘pulmonary consumption’ on 25 October 1865, much to the sadness of crew
and passengers.
One of the ship’s more eccentric captains, Captain Gray, climbed each
mast at least once a week and interrupted one voyage to Australia to
claim the uninhabited island of St. Martin for the Empire. He held a
banquet that evening to celebrate.

Photographs courtesy of the ss Great Britain Trust

By the late 1870’s the Great Britain was showing her age, her engines
were removed, and she was converted into a fast three-masted sailing
ship. In this unrecognisable guise, the once proud ship transported
Welsh coal to San Francisco. On her third trip, however, she ran into
trouble around Cape Horn, and was forced to run for shelter in Port
Stanley in the Falkland Islands. Damaged as a result of this, she was
sold as a coal and wool storage hulk in Port Stanley.
In all the Great Britain had 25 accidents entered in her logs –
ranging from collisions with other vessels, running aground, lost spars
and mast damage, to losing that eccentric Captain Gray in mysterious
circumstances.
She remained in Port Stanley through the First World War, with coal from her hold helping to replenish the battle cruisers Inflexible and Invincible
before the decisive battle of the Falkland Islands on 7 December 1914,
in which the armoured cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst and light
cruisers Nurnberg and Leipzig were sunk.
By 1937 the Great Britain’s hull was no longer watertight, and after
being towed a short distance from Port Stanley, she was beached and
abandoned to the elements.
Attempts to rescue her in the late 1930’s and 1960’s failed, but
finally in 1970 an epic salvage effort refloated the ship, and she was
towed back home across the Atlantic to Bristol.
Despite spending nearly 100 years suffering in the harsh South
Atlantic weather, the Great Britain was able to float up the River Avon
herself! After covering over a million miles, Brunel’s 155 year old iron
hull had stood the test of time superbly.
Following yet another refit, this time costing in the region of £11.3
million, Brunel’s ss Great Britain was re-launched as one of the
world’s most important maritime museums in 2005. For further details
visit www.ssgreatbritain.org.

The frostbite on the right side of Charlie's wattle fell off and just left scar tissue. The left side is still blackened. Hopefully it will fall off soon. The girls have not been picking at it, so that is a good sign that it will heal quickly.

I tried to get him to turn his head for a better picture...but he was in no mood to pose for the camera!

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

The Big Bad Wolf

Busch Gardens' Big Bad Wolf closed at the end of its 25th season.
The park announced that the ride had reached the end of its serviceable
life and would be retired in September 2009.
Big Bad Wolf is best known for its finale where the track drops over
the edge of a 99-foot cliff and descends into a tight turn over the
Rhine River. During the first part of this Arrow-Huss suspended coaster
the track travels through a Bavarian Village with the cars swinging to
narrowly miss the buildings at speeds approaching 50 mph.

Roller Coaster Details

Year

Track

Type

Designer

1984

Steel

Suspended Terrain

Arrow Dynamics, Huss

Roller Coaster Stats

Drop: 106 feet

Height: 100 feet

Length: 2,800 feet

Trains: 3 - 28 passenger

Ride Time: 3 minutes

Top Speed: 48 mph

Big Bad Wolf Facts

Final day of operation: September 7, 2009
Features: Two Lift Hills (50 feet, 100 feet)
Train has seven cars with two rows each, seating two abreast per row.
Height requirement: Riders must be at least 42 inches tall

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Jessie Tarbox was born on December 23, 1870,
in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She began taking pictures as a hobby and
in 1902 was hired by The Buffalo Inquirer as a staff photographer.
Tarbox is thought to be the first woman in the US to hold this position.
After covering the World’s Fair in 1904, she moved to New York City and
opened a photography studio,taking portraits of famous people including Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain. Tarbox died in 1942.

Her first career was
as a teacher, working in Massachusetts. In 1888, Beals got her first
camera and began taking pictures as a hobby, often in the summertime
when school was out. She married Alfred Tennyson Beals in 1897.

Jessie taught her husband how to develop negatives and make
prints. In 1900, she left teaching and pursued photography full time
with her husband as her assistant.

Becoming restless, they moved to St. Louis to
cover the World’s Fair in 1904.
At first, she wasn’t acknowledged as a
press photographer, but she managed to get credentials that allowed her
to take pictures of the fair before the exhibits were opened. From
those initial images, Beals managed to convince the fair’s
administration of her talents, and she became the only official female
photographer for the event. While there, she took impressive shots of
the fair’s air show, exhibits, and many of its important visitors.

In 1905, Jessie fulfilled a professional dream-she moved
to New York City and opened a studio. She became known for portraits,
documenting her subjects in a realistic, natural style. She also
continued to work as a freelance photographer. She was featured in a
1913 The New York Times article
about women photographers and described a recent
project-“photographing tenement-house conditions for the purpose of
reform.”

Separated from her husband in 1917, she was
left to look after their daughter-who was born in 1911-on her own. With a
child to support, she often took whatever type of work she could get.
Besides taking pictures, Beals also lectured on the subject of the
photography.

Toward the end of her life, she spent several years in
California doing garden photography, and some of these images were
published in The New York Times. Beals was also published in such magazines as Ladies’ Home Journal, Town and Country, and Harper’s Bazaar during the course of her career.

Her photographs of New York and the people at the turn of the 20th century are just stunning.

This site is copyright Simon Robinson.
You may use any part of this site for any non-commercial
purpose, but if you do so, please attribute it to me and
provide a link back to this site.

To the best of my knowledge, all photographs
used on this site are published with the full permission of the
photographer or photograph owner. However, if you are the
copyright holder and have any objection to the photo being used,
please email me.

About Me

Mostly about my backyard chickens (Boring, I know), but there are a lot of us out here. Mine are only kept as pampered pets. I could eat a neighbor's chicken, but not MINE. There may be a comment on current events only if I get riled up enough. And there will always be a cartoon or a joke to cheer us. I promise to try my very best to respond to comments. Now I have to figure out how this blogger thingy works....